LocallyGrown.Net -- Small Farms Making a Difference

This page contains news items, links to interesting sites, and anything else the market managers have wanted to share with you. They are listed in reverse chronological order, with the newest entries at the top.

The Weblog

This weblog contains LocallyGrown.net news and the weblog entries from all the markets currently using the system.

To visit the authoring market’s website, click on the market name located in the entry’s title.

LOCALLYGROWNGIFTBAZAAR:
This week’s Locally Grown Gift Bazaar will be at our downtown location at Tire City Potters, 5pm-7pm.

HOLIDAYMARKETSCHEDULE:
Due to this year’s holiday calendar, the following market changes have been made:

NO! MARKET ON TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25
NO! MARKET ON TUESDAY, JANUARY 1YES! MARKET ON FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28
(ONLY AT THEACJJ!, NO DOWNTOWN, NO RIVERWOOD)

On-line orders will be taken that week from Sunday, Dec 23 to Wed, Dec 26. Pick up will be at the AJCC only from 4pm-6pm.

SMALLBUSINESSAWARD TO BUONACAFFE!
John and Pat Curry, our local coffee roasters, are the first winners of the new Small Business, Big Wishes campaign from Intuit! Read all about their award (and plans for a new coffee bar in Augusta!) on their Facebook page.

FAREWELL TO OURCOLLEGE-BOUNDMARKETMANAGERS, TIM & SETH!
This is Tim’s last week at our Downtown Market. Tim is headed to UGA to finish his undergraduate studies in Sports Management. Seth will finish up at our Riverwood Market next week. Seth is hunkering down in his studies at ASU, with a rigorous math class on Tuesday nights. We are ever so grateful for the tremendous responsibility and service these young men have provided Augusta Locally Grown and will miss them very, very much.

AUGUSTALOCALLYGROWN ON FACEBOOK:
The Augusta Locally Grown Facebook page has enjoyed a joyous rebirth! (Thanks to Leslie of Luna Bug for nudging us into the 21st century.) We deeply appreciate all your “likes,” your photos, and especially your enthusiastic kudos for our farmers’ food.

HAPPYWORLDSOILDAY!
Yep! It’s real! A Brazilian friend and soil scientist clued me in!! And what a worthy celebration it was …on Dec 5.

A-GUSTAVORETSHIRTWINNERTHISWEEK: LORETTA
When Loretta Adderson friended me on Facebook this week, her profile included one of my favorite locally grown photos ever! I’d seen it before, but it makes me smile every time. I mean, WHAT could be cooler than an organic-farmer-nutrition-activist-grandma and her John Deere? Kenny Chesney may SING about his sexy tractor, but in my book Loretta is the real deal.

Lake Flour is offering rolls and baguettes this month. Nancy just activated these items so if you’d like some and have already placed an order, please place a second order for these baked goods. Sorry for the trouble. Thanks so much.

With the holidays just around the corner there are many things that we want to fit into our schedules. Most want to be sure they have some yummy homemade treats to offer family and friends. Perhaps you are having a Cookie Exchange at work or church! The smell of cookies in the oven is one of the ‘joys’ of the Christmas season for me. I have some wonderful recipes that I will be forwarding to you this weekend. If you have a special recipe that you would like to share, please send it to me at grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com and I will post it in the recipe section on the Market!

Although we ordered cream months ago through another Farm, it has yet to be available. I was able to find good quality, raw cream from another source. It has been frozen; however, I purchased some this past week, thawed it and WOW – I was VERY pleased. For those who have already paid for cream, it will be available on Tuesday at Market pickup. If you haven’t ordered and would like to, please email me or call me. You can reach me at 404-432-4337 or grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com.

The delay in ordering from Wilderness Family Naturals is unfortunate however, necessary due to amounts below the minimum order amount to receive the Group Buy Discount. We now have the minimum and the order will be placed on Tuesday. I will email you with your total, including shipping and handling and all monies will be due by Tuesday.

Green Pasture Group Buys also require a minimum number of bottles ordered to get their discounted pricing. At present I have orders for 6 bottles. In order to accommodate those who need the product, I am investigating other avenues to get the product in as soon as possible. I would like to order product from them on a monthly basis to ensure that we all have sufficient supplies on hand and don’t run short. Vitamin D is essential for healthy minds and bodies — especially in the winter months when our exposure to sunlight is even more limited. Please contact me if you would like to order. You can reach me at 404-432-4337 or through email grow@ranchoalegrefarm.com.

I have two pieces of info your you this week. I wanted to give you a schedule for the next 4 months. As we have done in the past, we will continue weekly until Christmas and then every two weeks after the first of the year.

January,
market opens December 29th, delivery on Saturday Jan 5th (Winter market in Manhattan)
Deliveries 15 and 16, 29 and 30
(we do have a winter market in Manhattan on Friday, January 25th)

February,
deliveries 12 and 13, 26 and 27

With baby due at the end of February/ First part of March we will have to keep an eye on these dates.

March,
Deliveries 12 and 13, 26 and 27

April
Deliveries 9 and 10, 23 and 24

May, back to a weekly schedule.

Also, with the lower temps coming on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday please order early to allow me enough time to get everything ready. It has to rise above freezing in the high tunnels in order to harvest. When it starts to get cold, it only gives me a short harvest window each day. If I know what I have to harvest earlier, then I can make better harvest plans.

Finally, last Saturday (after the Farmers Market) I was able to get the last transplants in for this year. It was later than I had wanted, but they are in. I am hoping for a mid to late January harvest time for these crops.

Orders are due by 5 pm on Sunday. Also think ahead, wouldn’t some baked goods be good for Christmas? What about ordering early and putting them in the freezer? That would be a stress free way to get ready for those Holiday meals?

This is a pickup reminder for those of you who ordered this week. Thank you for your order. You can pick up your order from 4:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. today at Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church at 925 Mitchell Street in Conway.

Remember to bring your glass jars for recycling, and bags for ordered items.

No time for lollygagging this morning, friends. Lots of news to share, but this is not the time! What you need to know right now is this:The Market is open. Here are some things you might like:

- Our Market will be closed for the week of Christmas (you might not like that?), meaning that it will not be opening the 23rd for ordering and there will be no pickup on the 29th. We WILL, however, have the market open on the 16th for the 22nd pickup, so we can all get our groceries in for the feasting.

- Maison Terre has uploaded their Holiday Country Terrine. Here’s her description:
“Ingredients: pork, veal, beef, salt pork, pancetta, prosciutto, onion, garlic, black peppercorns, figs, pistachios, cinnamon, nutmeg, thyme, garlic, allspice, bay, eggs, heavy cream, cognac, and olive oil. For the holidays, the Tea Room will be serving a truly decadent and wonderfully delicious terrine. We thought we would make them available whole to you. This terrine reminds me of one that my Delta grandmother made this time of the year. It also reminds me of the country terrines I sampled during from my travels in Europe. Perhaps Grandmother Brown’s recipe was passed down over many generations. Serve with bread and cornichons as an hors d’oeuvres or as an appetizer, or over a bed or your favorite greens and with vegetable side dishes as a main course.”

- North Pulaski’s Tat Soi is still the most beautiful leafery I’ve ever seen. Mild and tasty!

- I made a boo-boo last weekend: our One Year Membership gift certificates are on sale for $50. Two free months, folks. Wow.

- If you have a juicer: we sampled a fantastic concoction of apples, sorrel, radish, and kale yesterday. Bright green and surprisingly sweet!

- Armstead Farm’s done for the season, and they’ve asked me to forward the following message to ya’ll:
“Dear Members and Volunteers,
We have made our last delivery for the 2012 season and are already planning for a 2013 return. Thank you all so much for your support of both our farm and ALFN. We truly appreciate your dedication to the local sustainable agricultural movement.We also wish to remind you to always feel free to make comments, suggestions or critique our products.This is valuable feedback in helping us provide the best quality, freshest produce. Again, big thanks to you – we farmers cannot do what we do without you. Very happy Holidays to you and your family and best wishes for a Healthy, Happy New Year,
Sue and Rusty Nuffer/Armstead Mountain Farm”

How about that? OK, that’s all I’m saying. Nope, no more information for now. I’ve got a whole newsletter coming with even MORE juicy news, so just you wait.
Sincerely,
Sam Hedges

In this Issue

Market News

Bulk Grass-fed Cheese Order This Weekend
This weekend we will be placing a group order for Grass-fed cheese from Kenny’s Farmhouse Cheese. Prices and available sizes will be on the market website tomorrow for ordering. The pricing will include shipping and taxes/fees. The cheese will be available for pick up on December 18th.

•Cows Raised without synthetic hormones
•Cows are grass-fed and raised on pasture
•Old World, Handmade Cheese making Techniques
•Cheeses are made with raw milk and aged at least 60 days to comply with the USDA regulations for raw milk cheese production
•Vegetable-based rennet, to make it more acceptable to vegetarians
See Kenny’s website for more detailed information about his process: http://www.kennysfarmhousecheese.com/

Benefits of Grass-Fed Cheese
•One of the few foods that contains a perfect balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fats, a ratio ideal for your health
•Very high in “conjugated linoleic acid;” in fact, it contains five times more CLA than dairy from grain-fed cows! CLA, which are most abundant in grass-fed products, are among the most potent cancer fighters in all foods.
•Considerably higher in beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin D, and vitamin E than cheese and other dairy from grain-fed sources.
•High in the healthy calcium and protein your body needs
•Free from growth hormones

New Items

Frozen Raw Goat Milk from Montage Farm
Montage Farm will have Fresh Raw Goat Milk for only 1 more weekend. It will be fresh milk as usual for this week’s order but after this weekend, all raw goat milk will be sold Frozen. They like “the girls” to get a 60 day rest before they give birth. After February we’ll have lots of fresh milk again. Montage Farm will start listing the available frozen gallons starting 12/14

On a side note- Angie from Montage Farm will be having back surgery soon. Please keep her lifted in your prayers for a successful surgery and a quick recovery.

Smoked Scamorza-This is an aged SMOKED cheese of the same family as mozzarella. It is dryer and tastier. It is aged for a minimum of two weeks and lasts up to one month. It is perfect in sandwiches, as a pizza topping or simply with crackers.

Honey Pots B&B Enterprises has handmade honey pots. These are not made by Bob but by a friend, Sue from Malsnee Pottery. You might have met her at the Yellow Daisy Festival this year. They are beautiful and make a perfect gift with Bob’s honey. Malsnee Pottery has been a family endeavor consisting of wheel turned stoneware pottery since 1991. The pottery is turned to create light weight functional as well as decorative pieces. To add to the uniqueness of the pottery the Malsnees make their own glazes to produce the unusual rainbow of colors on each piece. The designs and patterns are all hand painted.

NGD Produce Box Pickup (Christmas Week Only)
For scheduling purposes I wanted to let you know that our produce boxes will be delivered on Wednesday (12/26) instead of Tuesday(12/25) due to the Christmas holiday. If you know you will be out of town or cannot pick up that day PLEASE put your box on vacation hold via NGD’s website www.ga.naturesgardendelivered.com
Because of this I will have our co-op pick up for market items on Wednesday (12/26) as well.

We thank you for your interest and support of our efforts to bring you the healthiest, the freshest and the most delicious foods possible!